//------------------------------// // Searching for Clues // Story: Mother X: Father // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// Ness moved carefully through Burglin Park. It didn't seem to be that dangerous a spot, and was actually rather relaxing. Several stalls were set up with people selling various things, from condiments to school supplies, along with several selling things on blankets. However, there didn't seem to be any sort of danger there. A path through the middle of the park led straight to a small house, and a man could be seen atop it. The man had thick black hair, a bushy black beard, a black hat, a red face, black shades, a Hawaiian shirt, blue slacks, and black shoes. As the man caught sight of Ness, he leapt off the roof dramatically before landing with a 'Hup!' on the ground, grinning eagerly as he stared at Ness. Ness swallowed nervously. "M...Mr. Everdread?" he asked carefully. "Wah ha ha ha ha!" the man laughed eagerly. "Why don't we chat later...after we've locked horns?" He took a combat stance, wincing as he put weight on one of his feet. Noticing that, Ness pointed to the foot in question. "Buzz Buzz, heal him." "Are you sure?" Buzz Buzz asked surprised. "This is going to be...a battle of men," Ness concluded, "just like with Frank. I don't want an unfair advantage." Buzz Buzz stared at Ness for a time. "...he's at least 20 years your senior, plainly has martial arts training by his stance, outweighs you by a factor of at least two in what looks like pure muscle...and you think it's unfair to him he has a twisted ankle?" he demanded incredulously. "Yes," Ness replied firmly. "Heal him please." Buzz Buzz let out a sigh. "Is this why the Apple chose you? Because you're crazy?" He sighed as he flew over to the man. "If you're going to act like Sun Wukong, I just hope you have the skill to back it up..." The bearded man let off another laugh as Buzz Buzz spun around his ankle, healing the injury. "I like you, kid! You know what it means to be a man! So I won't hold back!" With that, he charged forward. Ness closed his eyes and tilted back out of the way of the first strike. He then slowly let go of his physical awareness, doing his best to sink completely into his PSI. His body was nowhere near strong enough to beat a foe like this, only his mind was. He would need to rely entirely on his mind. He reacted to the threats he felt coming, twisting and turning and leaping out of the way of strikes he wasn't entirely aware of. The man growled eagerly at the sight of this. "So you know blind fighting, huh?" he demanded eagerly. "Well I know how to counter that..." A strike right at Ness' center failed as Ness simply sat down and rolled out of the way. "Damn! You're too small for that to work! You ain't got a strike zone! Well, I know a few o-GURKH!" Ness had thrust forward with his bat like a pool cue, getting the man right in the solar plexus. He then jerked the bat up to catch the man on the chin while letting the upward swing spin him around before turning it into a forward swing with the momentum, slamming it into the man's gut and sending him flying into the wall of his house. The man coughed several times as he struggled to catch his breath. Pulling himself off the wall, he grinned down at Ness. "Okay, you won fair and square," he gasped out as he shook himself off. Once Ness opened his eyes, he continued. "Yes, I'm Everdread of Burglin Park...and you're here asking about Paula. You won't like the answers I have to give, which is why I fought you, to see if you were strong enough to hear them." "And what are they?" Ness asked eagerly. "She went off to a secret hideout in Peaceful Rest Valley east of town," Everdread explained, "but she got kidnapped by a chubby boy and a man in a blue outfit. I heard them say something about a human sacrifice, but I wasn't able to do anything. Those guys were just too tough. But you're tougher than that, kid, so I'm sure you can handle it. If you manage to pull through and save her, come see me. I couldn't stop her being taken, so if you bring her back I'm going to do what I can to help you." "Right," Ness confirmed. "East of town..." He pulled out the town map to plot the course. "Head east from the bus station," Everdread offered before ducking back into his house. Moondancer slowly made her way north, focusing her PSI senses. She wasn't paying much attention to where she was going. Instead, she was focusing on tracking the strongest PSI signatures in the area. It was a bit difficult since the entire area was blanketed with the background PSI waves from Giygas, reaching through time and slowly building until they would be overwhelming. Even when she was able to filter through that without being overwhelmed by it, she had to push aside the residual of Paula's frequent passages. If she was right about the identity of the band, then once she'd filtered through the residuals she would pick up at least five incredibly strong PSI signatures other than her own. Ness, Buzz Buzz... ...and there they were. Three others, though there was something off about them. She could tell they were strong, but they felt...shackled. Like something was deliberately limiting the power of the minds in question for some reason. Still, she was able to pick them up, coming from a building she could see ahead of her, one signal coming from outside. The building was old brick, with a sign declaring 'Chaos Theater' above the door and window facing the road. There was a long line to the window, so Moondancer instead approached the two men standing outside the building to one side on the grass next to a van. One hefty man was dressed in a black and white suit with a red suit jacket. The other - taller and skinnier - was dressed all in black. Both wore shades and black hats, and the van was also black. She found herself disappointed that her search turned up nothing, turning to leave... She dragged her attention back. Something was...off. Something was making her not want to pay too much attention to the men or to the van. She knew what that meant. PSI cloaking field. Pushing through, she went right up to the pair. The hefty one smirked down at her. "Hey little lady," he greeted warmly. "We're the Runaway Five. You know famous people when you see them." "Well, not that famous," the other man allowed. "That Paula lass is the talk of the town." "Oh, where are our manners?" the hefty man asked. "I'm Gorgeous, and my friend here is Lucky." "Yes, but what about names?" Lucky joked. Both men chuckled...though Lucky's chuckle seemed oddly stilted to Moondancer's ear. "I hear you used to go by a different name?" Moondancer asked carefully. "Yeah, before we came here," Gorgeous allowed. "But the folks here in Eagleland don't like foreign sounding names much, so we changed it. The new name suits us much better, I think." "What was the old name?" Moondancer asked curiously. "Was it by chance...Tonzura Go?" "Perrrrhaps," Lucky replied, the 'r' stretching oddly. "Why do you ask-k?" For some reason, he seemed to hiccup on the 'k'. Moondancer turned all her attention on Lucky. She knew there was a field here, something blocking her perceptions, and she would pierce through it. She would push aside that illusion of a suit, this disguise of a harmless old musician... ...and see the broken symbol. "...Larice?" she gasped out hopefully, her eyes starting to water. Lucky stared down at her for a time. He then knelt and brought his hand to Moondancer's head...and she felt the familiar bio-metal tendril stroke her mane.